Dole Says He Has Plan to Win Votes of Women

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

Published: May 8, 1996

WASHINGTON, May 7—
Bob Dole tonight directly confronted for the first time one of his greatest weaknesses in his campaign for the White House -- his lack of support among women.

"I've seen some poll numbers, and you've seen the poll numbers that say, well, there's a gender gap," he said to a group of Republican women tonight. "Does this bother me? You bet it does. I don't believe there should be a gender gap; I think that gap will close. Do I have a plan to eliminate it? Yes I do."

His plan, Mr. Dole said, was to start discussing his support of certain pieces of legislation of particular interest to women. He noted first that he had sponsored a measure to make it easier to convict repeat rapists. However, that measure was part of the 1994 anti-crime bill, which Mr. Dole ultimately voted against because it contained a ban on assault weapons. The bill passed anyway.

The second item for which he took credit was "leading the Senate" to fund the Violence Against Women Act. That, too, was part of the anti-crime legislation that he opposed.

The Senate majority leader, who is the presumptive Republican nominee, then turned to other issues that Republicans hope to use as part of their appeal to women. He said his record also included "fighting for a balanced budget, for lower taxes, for better schools, for a strong national defense and for building a brighter future for all our citizens."

The second part of his strategy to woo women's votes, he said, would be to point out the "credibility gap" between President Clinton's words and his actions. He pointed to Mr. Clinton's promises to balance the budget and restructure welfare, only to veto Republican measures that Mr. Dole said would have done so.

In Woodbridge, N.J., today, President Clinton focused on an issue the Democrats have identified as a family concern: teen-age smoking. [Page B1.]

Mr. Dole did not make even passing reference in his remarks to the current debate within his party over abortion. Moderate Republicans, including some prominent governors and members of Congress, have vowed to wage a fight at the Republican National Convention this August over the party's platform, which calls for an outright constitutional ban on abortions.

The candidate's speech, and his decision to confront his problems with women voters, came as a new national poll made public today showed Mr. Dole trailing Mr. Clinton by 25 percentage points. The Harris poll, which had a margin of sampling error of three percentage points, said Mr. Clinton would beat Mr. Dole 53 percent to 28 percent.

While surveys show Mr. Dole trailing Mr. Clinton among almost all demographic and economic groups, he does the worst among women voters.

The latest New York Times/CBS News Poll found that in a two-way race, men were divided evenly between Mr. Clinton and Mr. Dole, 45 percent for each, but 52 percent of the women favored Mr. Clinton, while only 34 percent said they would vote for Mr. Dole.

As they try to confront this problem, some Republicans, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich, are describing the sex gap as a problem merely of perception.

Speaking earlier today to the same group of women addressed by Mr. Dole, Mr. Gingrich promised "a tidal wave of communications" to correct what he said were false impressions of the Republican agenda created by President Clinton's "shameful performance of systematically misleading the American people." He said Mr. Clinton's false characterizations of Republicans had been fueled by a "passive conspiracy" of the liberal media.

"Liberals love to divide us," Mr. Gingrich said. But the Republicans, he said, can argue that "it is the welfare state which has been the most systematic oppressor of young women in the last 30 years."

Tony Blankley, Mr. Gingrich's spokesman, said in an interview later that the Republicans "have the challenge of explaining, not in shorthand for those inside the Beltway, but in human terms, what our policies intend to do."

But Ann Lewis, deputy manager of the Clinton/Gore campaign, said Mr. Dole had been "wrong on every major issue" affecting women, including, perhaps most symbolically, opposing the Family Medical Leave Act," which President Clinton signed.

She said Mr. Dole had displayed "an eagerness to cut back sharply at the expense of issues and policies that make a difference in family lives. It's the kitchen-table issues. I don't know how he turns it around, unless he's prepared to detach himself from the Congress of which he is a leader."

Mr. Dole said tonight that the Republican Party was "just as caring and just as compassionate as the other party." His solutions to the problems facing women were similar to those he has been offering on the campaign trail -- cutting spending, balancing the budget and returning power to the states.

Like Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Dole also said the press sided with President Clinton and distorted what the Republicans were doing. "We need to convince the media that we have a message too," he said.

Until now, the Dole campaign has done little to address women directly. By way of expressing support for working women, Mr. Dole frequently tells audiences that if he is elected President, his wife, Elizabeth Dole, will take a job outside the White House -- returning to her post as president of the Red Cross.

But then he seems to undercut that message by adding that his wife would "not be in charge of health care," a dig at Hillary Rodham Clinton that some perceive as meaning that Mr. Dole thinks women cannot handle important jobs.

This is obviously not what Mr. Dole believes, since his chief of staff and his top fund-raiser are both women, and his wife has had a high-powered career of her own. Nonetheless he has had trouble conveying that he is sympathetic to the concerns of ordinary women.

Perhaps hurting him the most, pollsters say, is that Mr. Dole is linked with Mr. Gingrich and the Congressional Republican agenda, which many women have told pollsters goes too far in dismantling the safety net that Government traditionally has provided.

Photos: Senator Bob Dole attended a meeting of Republican women inWashington yesterday. He attacked the credibility of President Clinton, who appeared at Woodbridge High School in New Jersey. (Stephen Crowley/The New York Times)